Abstract
3D display technologies have been linked to visual discomfort and fatigue. In a lab-based study with a between-subjects design, 433 viewers aged from 4 to 82 years watched the same movie in either 2D or stereo 3D (S3D), and subjectively reported on a range of aspects of their viewing experience. Our results suggest that a minority of viewers, around 14%, experience adverse effects due to viewing S3D, mainly headache and eyestrain. A control experiment where participants viewed 2D content through 3D glasses suggests that around 8% may report adverse effects which are not due directly to viewing S3D, but instead are due to the glasses or to negative preconceptions about S3D (the ‘nocebo effect’). Women were slightly more likely than men to report adverse effects with S3D. We could not detect any link between pre-existing eye conditions or low stereoacuity and the likelihood of experiencing adverse effects with S3D.
Highlights
The last decade has seen a dramatic expansion of the use of stereo 3D (S3D) technology in entertainment and communication, including cinema, television, game consoles and mobile phones
Our work differs from previous studies in that it attempts to control for negative expectations regarding 3D
It may have more ecological validity than other lab studies, since it was carried out in a relatively natural setting, watching a real 3D movie such as people view at home
Summary
The last decade has seen a dramatic expansion of the use of stereo 3D (S3D) technology in entertainment and communication, including cinema, television, game consoles and mobile phones. There is considerable evidence that visual symptoms such as eyestrain or blurred vision can be caused by the disruption of the natural relationship between binocular convergence and accommodation (Howarth 2011; Shibata et al 2011; Yang and Sheedy 2011) This occurs because current S3D displays require viewers to maintain accommodation on the screen plane while verging in front of or behind it. S3D displays rarely depict the true horizontal and vertical disparities which a real object would produce Over time, these subtle distortions might contribute to viewer discomfort (Banks et al 2012)
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